Cinda Williams Chima Quotes

Think of what we could accomplish if we were not focused on murdering each other. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Don't pick a fight you can't win. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

A battle is like a deadly sort of dance, Lyss thought. We learn the steps by sparring in the practice yards, by marching up and down the field in the hope that we'll remember the moves when we're distracted by the smell of blood and the shrieks of the wounded anddeath howling toward us from all sides. We go into battle to the cadence of drums and guns, but our dance cards are blank. We have no idea who we'll dance with that day, when death might cut in, and who'll leave the floor alive. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Han made no effort to put up a brave front. Most of the time he just screamed himself hoarse, though a couple of times he amused himself by screaming Fionas's name as if he were in the throes of passion. FEEE-OHHH-NAAA! Lord Bayar made him pay for that, but afterward, Fiona didn't come down anymore, which Han appreciated. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

I guess you never think your enemy is as clever as you are. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

I have to think it's possible to suffer a great wrong and walk away from it. To build a life of small, exquisitely important moments. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You are my father," she said to Averill. "And you are my grandmother," she said to Elena. "And you are duty-bound to me," she said to Nightwalker.
"If you take action against Hunts Alone without my permission, we will be at war. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Madison looked from Jason, who jerked his head toward the gate, signaling her to get moving, to Longbranch, whose cold, direct gaze said Jason would pay in blood for any kind of double-cross.
One thing was clear: Jason Haley had been lying to her since the moment he set foot on her porch. Was he really plotting with the Roses? Or had he decided to sacrifice himself to get her into the sanctuary?
Madison threw her arms around Jason's neck as if she couldn't face being parted from him and whispered fiercely in his ear, "You lying lunatic bastard. They're going to kill you."
"I love you too," he murmured. "Go find Seph. Help him. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You'd choose him over me?"

"He ain't the one making me choose. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

And then Micah Bayar swept back his cloak and dropped to his knees, bowing his head, his amulet swinging forward. Fiona glared down at him like she wanted to stomp on him.
Ho, Han thought. Micah breaks with his family? That's interesting. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Well now, Jack," Hastings said from the sidelines. "I'm afraid you've been beheaded. Not a good start." He sounded amused. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Love makes you vulnerable, Raisa thought. And yet she'd always hoped for it ~ Cinda Williams Chima

The time will come when you will be forced to make a choice," Hanalea said. "When that time comes, choose love. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

The problem is, hope is the thing that can't be reined in by rules or pinned down by bitter experience. It's a blessing and curse. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Just a rat, she repeated to herself. After all, there were rats in the palace. Human and otherwise. Could be worse. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You are not being paid to make assumptions ~ Cinda Williams Chima

I like to know the truth. That's all. I just wish the truth was different. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

A vocation is not something you slap on, like a coat of paint, and change whenever you want. A vocation is built into you. You have no choice. If you try to do something else, you fail. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Fitch is on his way. He's coming after he blows up some wizards. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

But I don't want your throne." "Then what do you want?" "You. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Hope is the thing that can't be reigned in by rules or pinned down by bitter experience. It's a blessing and a curse. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Even when we win, we lose, Lyss thought. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Strong men do choose strong women, he thought. It's only the weak that are threatened by them. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You don't stop being who you are just because you've run away. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Love everywhere, and none for me. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Nobody's going to hand you anything. You don't get what you don't go after. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

I do try to get my own way, but I think it's because I'll never get my way on anything that matters ~ Cinda Williams Chima

She could Captain to his Your Majesty any time. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

There was no fair way to compare what had been with what might have been. He just had to find a way forward. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You couldn't keep your mouth shut? I'm calling you Glitterhair from now on. Or Talksalot. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Like a stand of lodgepole pines in a gale Raisa's followers all went down leaving her standing alone ... There's no shelter for me not from any of this. I'll stand alone the rest of my life. THE GRAY WOLF THRONE p. 163 ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Jason felt humiliated and frustrated. Rejected by a rock. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You don't have to come with me," Ash said. "I only brought you along because you're good with a knife. And got us the uniforms. And the explosives."
Lila snorted. "Sorry I'm not pulling my weight."
"This may not be your idea," Ash said doggedly, "but it's what we're going to do."
"Is it? Are you really going to start playing the prince card after all?"
"Don' start in about my mother the queen, because I don't want to hear it."
"All right, then, as your peer and absolute equal, I can't help thinking this is a really bad idea. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Politics is not about justice. It's about the settling of personal vendettas under a thin veneer of civilization. All politics is personal. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

The bluejacket girlie rode like a clan warrior, but there was no way she'd escape. It was a private life-and-death contest that had nothing to do with him.
He told himself he should ride on, grateful that the chase would keep them occupied while he took a different path.
But what had he told Rebecca when she'd asked what he meant to do when he returned to the Fells?
'I'm tired of people in power picking on the weak. I'm going to help them. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Haven't you heard about me?" he said, with a tight smile. "I'm really a very dangerous person." And he did look dangerous until he said, "Look, could you watch Dog for me while I'm gone? I can't take him where I'm going. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

There's something about a roof isn't there? It makes you feel like it doesn't matter what's going on below. All of those things that get in the way of your dreams - you're above them. Anything is possible. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

It's not about what people think. It's about who you are. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Raisa's breath caught. "They clubbed you?"
"Well." He looked sideways at her. "If you were any good, they'd miss. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

But it's not enough to know right from wrong. You need the strength to do what's right, even when what you want most in the world is the wrong thing. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

I . . . what do you mean? I don't know any Angelique."
Catherine stared at him in surprise. "Why, Garren, of course you know Angelique, the clerk in my shop in Whitehall?"
Garren planted both hands on the table and pushed to his feet. "Let's go. This is a waste of time." "It says . . ." The seer frowned, as if trying to make out a hazy script.
"It says, 'I'm not going to sleep with you anymore, you faithless bastard. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

It was one of the warm nights at the end of summer that makes promises that won't be kept. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You can't always pick where you fight, or who you fight ... or even ... how you fight. But do the picking ... whenever you can. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

So here's the truth - I love you. I love everything about you – the way you stick up for people even when it costs you. The way you keep trying to do the right thing even when you're not exactly sure what the right thing is. I love how you put words together. You're as skilled with words as any knife fighter with a blade. You can put an enemy down on his back, or you can raise people up so they find what's best in themselves. You've changed my life. You've given me the words I need to become whatever I want.
I love how you talk to lytlings. You don't talk down to them. You respect them, and anybody can tell you're actually interested in what they have to say.
I love the way you ride a horse – how you stick there like an upland thistle, whooping like a Demonai. I love the way you throw back your head and stomp your feet when you dance. I love how you go after what you want – whether it's kisses or a queendom.
I love your skin, like copper dusted over with gold. And your eyes – they're the color of a forest lake shaded by evergreens. One of the secret places that only the Demonai know about.
I love the scent of you – when you've been out in the fresh air, and that perfume you put behind your ears sometimes.
Believe it or not, I even love your road smell – of sweat and horses and leather and wool.
I want to breathe you in for the rest of my life. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

I can't make you, Rebecca, but you'll probably feel better if you eat. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You know, Micah, that first night, when I saw you on Bridge Street, I wanted to kill you. I wanted to cut your throat and watch your blood soak into the dirt. I wanted to wrap a strangle cord around your neck and throttle you while you kicked and messed yourself."
"I'm shaking in my boots," Micah said, looking Han dead in the eyes.
Han stood and took a step toward him. "I'm what's hiding in the side street when you walk home from The Four Horses," he said. "I'm the shadow in Greystone Alley when you go out to take a piss. I'm the foot pad in the corridor when you visit the girlie at Grievous Hall."
Micah's eyes narrowed, his self-assurance wilting a bit. Han could tell he was going back over a hundred suspicious sights and sounds. "You've been following me?"
"I can come and go from your room, any time I want," Han said. "I can tell you what you say when you talk in your sleep. I know what your down low girlie whispers in your ear." He laughed...
Michah licked his lips. "Perhaps you take some kind of perverse pleasure in stalking me... ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Stupid. He was stupid. He was tired of being stupid. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

If I could destroy the world, don't you think I could fight off the queen of the Fells? Crow snorted. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

She's tough for a blueblood, he'd thought, a lifetime ago. Maybe tough enough to be with him. He hadn't considered that he might not be tough enough to be with her. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

The next chamber is full of songbirds, if I remember right. Their music is like turtleweed. It will put you to sleep if you listen to it. They sleep most of the time, so the best thing is to pass through without waking them up. If they do awaken, then you must sing loud enough to drown out their music."
"Great," Han said. "Whose idea was that?"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Crow said. "I was an excellent singer. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Words can hurt, but sometimes it's the words you never got to say that hurt the most. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

What could she tell him? I notice everything about him, from his flawed nose to his battle scars to his eyes as blue as an upland lake at midsummer. Sometimes I see the boy he would have been had it not been for his life at Ragmarket. He wears his pain on his face in unguarded moments; at other times, I can see just how dangerous he is. No, she couldn't say any of that. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Truth be told, Raisa had no intention of marrying anyone any time soon. Her mother was young - she would rule for many years yet, so there was no need to rush into the confinement of marriage. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

To be honest, I thought of you as an amateur - a spoiled, entitled, runaway princeling bent on revenge who would get caught and then complicate my elegant scheme. I figured the less you knew, the better."
"I hate it when you sugarcoat things," Ash said. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

We're all dangerous in our own way, I guess. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

He keeps this up, he's bound to be caught, she thought. And this time they'll dangle him for certain. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

The things you don't like talking about would fill a library."
"That's the kind of life I've had, all right? ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Hope is a dangerous thing, Raisa thought. Once kindled, it's hard to put out. It makes wise people into fools. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You can't give evil free reign because you're afraid to confront it. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You ever notice how sometimes, in the middle of July, right downtown, you'll see a flower poking up through a crack in the asphalt. And you think, What a stupid place to set down roots. It'll get run over, or it'll dry up and blow away. But it hangs on, and it grows, and it blooms. Somehow, against the odds, it finds what it needs and it makes that place better for being there. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Ellen drank long and deep from her water bottle and wiped her mouth with her gauntleted arm. "Are you feeling all right, Jack? Your play's flat, all in all. I was hoping to give Seph more of a show."
Jack tested the edge of his blade with his thumb. "Actually, Ellen, I wondered if you were coming down with something. You were downright lethargic. I nearly dozed off once or twice."
"Well, that explains it. You looked like you were asleep."
With that, they threw down their weapons and it dissolved into a wrestling match. In the end they were kissing each other.
It was certainly a different kind of courtship, but there was a chemistry, an understanding, a kinship between Jack and Ellen that Seph envied. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

He'd serve himself, waiting and watching until he could take advantage. He wouldn't play the fool anymore. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Ellen rose to her feet. Jack thought for a moment she was going to storm out. Instead, she picked up the pitcher of hot fudge and poured the contents onto Leesha Middleton's pink jeans and fuzzy white sweater.
"Oops." Ellen sat down again and went back to eating her ice cream.
Leesha screamed, a sound that could be heard in Canada. Every eye in Corcoran's was on her. She slid out of the booth and swiped ineffectually at her jeans with a napkin.Then she plucked at her ruined sweater with her thumb and forefinger. "You...you...I can't believe you did that!"
Ellen licked whipped cream from the back of her spoon and looked at Leesha calmly.
Leesha was tiny, but she seemed to expand, like an amphibian taking on air, then she drew herself up and retrieved her pink leather purse from the bench next to Jack. It was smeared with fudge too. "You'll pay for that, I promise you," she said to Ellen in a voice that raised the gooseflesh on Jack's neck. Then she turned and left.
For a moment, Corcoran's was totally silent.
Ellen looked across the table at Jack's sundae. "Are you going to finish that? ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Surround yourselves with trustworthy people. If you don't, all the weaponry and tactics in the world can't save you. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You can't save everyone, you know."

I can't save ~ Cinda Williams Chima

It was just a different kind of battle, one he'd have to learn to win ~ Cinda Williams Chima

We may be poor, but at least we've always been honest."

Something broke inside Han, and when he opened his mouth the words came spilling out. "We're ~ Cinda Williams Chima

When you love someone it catches the attention of the Gods, who punish you. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

And, like a fool, she kissed him back. Kissed him a way that would leave no doubt about the way she felt about him. Kissed him because she knew the chances were slim she'd have very many kisses like that in her lifetime.
Which is a sad thing when you're only seventeen. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

(A)ny time you buy weapons, or build an army, you begin to look for an excuse to use them. Plus, you pose more of a threat to others. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

He'd always found that he learned more if he kept quiet. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Admit nothing - that was his first rule. Appeal to logic - second rule. Delay the inevitable - third rule. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Crow walked toward her, arms outstretched like a man in a dream, which he was, in a way. Sometimes a dream is enough. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

A fiction writer is never entirely alone. Her characters are constantly whispering in her ear. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

It's not enough to do something. It's important to do the right thing. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

It's easy to die, Mageling . . . It's staying alive that's hard work. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

He would find a way to make it work, because he finally understood that sometimes you have to raise your expectations. And sometimes you need to make a claim on the world and the people you love to get what you most desire ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Tears stung her eyes. She sank her knees next to the sleeping bench and gently raked strands of golden hair from him forehead.
"Don't you die. don't you dare. I forbid it." As if Han Alister had ever listened to anything she said. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

If he even survives." She shivered, and Amon put his arm around her, drawing her into his steady warmth.
"It's that bad?"
Raisa nodded. "He looked ... he looked awful, Amon. Willo doesn't know if he'll ... She's worried about him. My mother died, and I never got to tell her that I loved her, that I finally understood - just a little anyway. If Han dies too, I don't know what I'll do. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

So you questioned him?" Raisa prompted. "What did he say for himself?"
"Well, the first thing Gillen does is steal his purse and beat him with a club." Amon said. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Just tell me you don't love me, and I'll let the matter drop."
"What?"
"What I said. Just say, 'Rai, I don't love you and I never will'. It's that simple."
"Raisa, this is getting us nowhere."
"Say it! ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Didn't you say that the key is to live in the moment?" Metelon asked.

"That's the excuse people use for foolish behavior. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Raisa tried to lift her head and look around, but couldn't seem to find the strength. "Where are they the assassins?"

"They're already dead," Micah whispered in her ear. "I killed them on my way up. Else I would have been there sooner. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Her clothes still smoked from the wizard's assault. But to him, she always smelled of flowers. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Oh, I am getting married," Raisa said sleepily. "You promised me that if I agreed to marry you, that you would make it happen." She extended her hand, the one with the ring Han had given her, and waved it under his nose. "So. It's time to pay up. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

How dare you?' Bayar began, but his voice had lost some of its force. 'How dare you come into this sacred hall, flinging accusations?'
'I have not yet made any accusations,' Willo said. 'Perhaps it is our own guilt clamoring in your ears. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Believe me, there is no one more dangerous than one whose hopes have turned to despair. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Maybe the hardest lesson Han had learned was that nobody is purely bad or good. Everybody seemed to be a mixture of both. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

You can't assume that because you have plenty to eat that everyone does. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

He couldn't say why Captain Gray got under his skin the way she did. Though strong and well made, she was no great beauty, compared to the women he'd been introduced to at court. Yet, when they were together, she elbowed everything else out of his mind.

"Matelon?"

He looked up, and she was studying him with her amber eyes. Did she know that she had this effect on him? He prayed to all the gods she did not. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

If you're scared, you should've stayed at home," Byram said.
"If you're not scared, you're stupid. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

I thought I could play at love...But I've found out I'm not made that way...I can't play this game if my heart's not in it. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Knowledge is power. In the wrong hands, knowledge is trouble. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Falling in love was like falling off a cliff. It felt pretty much like flying until you hit the ground. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Please, Kenzie, Jonah thought. Please, please, please back off from this. His life wasn't much, but it was all he had, this small safe space, walled in by secrets. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

She was supposed to be writing an essay on how geography had shaped the great battles of the past, but she was having trouble concentrating. In fact, all she'd managed so far was a title. How Geography Has Shaped the Great Battles of the Past. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Leesha knew from experience that when parents don't parent, kids grow up fast. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

He expects nothing, she thought, because he's never had anything. And nothing was expected of him. He was free in a way she never would be. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

It's not just the real, but the perspective of real that counts. If people perceive you as weak, then you are weak, even if it's a survival strategy. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

If a lady should do this, Raisa wondered, should a man do the same? Is he required to? ~ Cinda Williams Chima